The Way the Ball Bounces
So Bud and I went to the Montreal Matrix basketball game on Friday night which was a part of his Valentine’s Day present. The Matrix is part of the ABA leagues which is basically the minor leagues for basketball. The game was pretty amazing. The players were not only hot but the play was decent as well.
But it really got me thinking about these people. I was a little depressed for them. Here were a group of men who were obviously loved the sport and were quite talented. But they were never going to make it to “the show”. The really talented ones were definitely too short and the tall ones didn’t have the same skill level as some of the others. And it got me thinking about the dreams of youth and the crashing pragmatism that comes with age.
We all have dreams when we are younger and we are always told that we can reach them if we try. But this does isn’t the case. For all of those that find Olympic glory there are hundreds who will never quite make it. When I was younger I was a competitive swimmer. For years I spent thirty hours a week training, lap after lap, morning and evening, all in the pursuit of an Olympic dream of my own.
But as I got older I realized that the people who did make the Olympics in that sport were typically setting records when they were ten. I was good and had a lot of talent, but I wasn’t a record breaker. Now, of course, there are those people who then train themselves into oblivion to surpass this, but I wasn’t ready to sacrifice everything else in life for the possibility that I might be able to make it.
It was a harsh moment of reality for me. When I realized that no matter what sometimes things don’t work out the way you want them to. And so I watched those players in a game that could not go on forever. Playing in a game that would not end in sponsorship deals or glory. They just played for the love of playing. And I hoped for their sake that they could keep playing for awhile because sooner or later they would come to the realization that they would have to do something else. Children and wives would enter the picture who might need more stability than that job. Bodies would wear down. Spirits would sink.
And at one time in the future a new path would have to be taken. And that change in lanes in never a simple one, never an easy shifting of perspective.
But it really got me thinking about these people. I was a little depressed for them. Here were a group of men who were obviously loved the sport and were quite talented. But they were never going to make it to “the show”. The really talented ones were definitely too short and the tall ones didn’t have the same skill level as some of the others. And it got me thinking about the dreams of youth and the crashing pragmatism that comes with age.
We all have dreams when we are younger and we are always told that we can reach them if we try. But this does isn’t the case. For all of those that find Olympic glory there are hundreds who will never quite make it. When I was younger I was a competitive swimmer. For years I spent thirty hours a week training, lap after lap, morning and evening, all in the pursuit of an Olympic dream of my own.
But as I got older I realized that the people who did make the Olympics in that sport were typically setting records when they were ten. I was good and had a lot of talent, but I wasn’t a record breaker. Now, of course, there are those people who then train themselves into oblivion to surpass this, but I wasn’t ready to sacrifice everything else in life for the possibility that I might be able to make it.
It was a harsh moment of reality for me. When I realized that no matter what sometimes things don’t work out the way you want them to. And so I watched those players in a game that could not go on forever. Playing in a game that would not end in sponsorship deals or glory. They just played for the love of playing. And I hoped for their sake that they could keep playing for awhile because sooner or later they would come to the realization that they would have to do something else. Children and wives would enter the picture who might need more stability than that job. Bodies would wear down. Spirits would sink.
And at one time in the future a new path would have to be taken. And that change in lanes in never a simple one, never an easy shifting of perspective.
posted by Rye at 8:20 a.m.
1 Comments:
Ah, how true. I think it's a load of bs to tell your kids they can do anything they want. We all have limits! And I think it's better for our "spirit" if we are aware of them. The sooner the better.
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